Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Sarah's phone became eligible for an upgrade this month and we went to Costco to check out our options. When I first mentioned this - and the idea of getting a smart phone - to Sarah she was a little hesitant. However, once we were there in the store, it was a no-brainer.

After we settled on a phone, got the contacts from her old phone transferred, and got the new one all connected, we headed home and Sarah was busy in the passenger's seat exploring her new toy. Neither of us have really messed around with a smart phone before so it was all brand new to her and maybe even a little intimidating. Sarah is not one to back down from something just because it's foreign to her, though, and she dove in fearlessly.

I wondered what would catch her eye first. The accessibility of her Gmail account? Her calendar? Facebook? Angry birds?

We only got a couple of minutes away from the store when Sarah broke her silence, held up the phone triumphantly, and declared, "We're only 2 miles from coffee!"

Friday, July 08, 2011

I went to the coffee shop tonight. The entire time I was there (about an hour), this couple who appeared to be in their late 40s/early 50s was seated near me. Despite the fact they were at the same table, right across from each other, they barely acknowledged each other's existence. Instead, they spent the whole time staring at their phones.

They just sat there in silence, engrossed by their phones.

Not talking to each other.

Just...looking at their phones and ignoring the other person.

It made my heart hurt a little.

I blacked out their faces to protect their privacy and also reflect their empty, empty hearts.

I haven't blogged for a while. Maybe it's because all of my creative energy has been going into my other blog where I review comedy albums. Maybe I haven't encountered any "good" stories lately. Or maybe I've just been lazy. Maybe it's been a mix of all three (anything to throw you off the whole "'lazy" option).

Whatever the reason, I share with you now the cute little story of a crazy woman in the car in front of me while I was driving to work this morning.

See, there was this crazy woman in the car in front of me on the way to work this morning.

She had started annoying me by randomly swerving and intermittently slowing down to 10 mph. No, before you even ask, I wasn't tailgating her, so I don't attribute the fact she kept slowing down to her trying to get back at me for driving too close. In fact, after seeing the mad driving skills she displayed, I was giving her plenty of room; I had no idea what was going to happen next. What I found particularly entertaining was the "NO CELL PHONE ZONE" bumper sticker on her car. In this case, it probably wouldn't have hurt.

We approached a stoplight with three lanes: a left-turn lane, an I'm-going-straight lane, and a right-turn lane. As we approached the light, she turned on her left turn signal and stayed in the going-straight lane (as fate would have it, the one I needed to take, too). I just assumed she wasn't familiar with the intersection and thought both left lanes were left-turn lanes. She stopped at the red light and then began to creep. Her front tires rolled past the white "Stop Here At A Red Light" line and she kept on rolling. I wondered if she thought it would make the light turn faster. It didn't. So she continued to creep forward.

Soon it got to the point where cars in the cross-traffic had to swerve out of the way as she continued to creep and creep and creep. Being familiar with this route, I knew the light wasn't going to change soon, so I grabbed my phone and snapped a quick photo, just because. Believe it or not, she began behind the white line.

This was taken before she crept even further into traffic. If you look closely at the picture, you can see that her left signal is on.

Incidentally, she ended up going straight instead of turning.

She continued to drive all crazy-like and I eventually got to pass her. She was older than dirt. She may even have been dead, I can't be positive. Either way, it made for nice little blog-worthy commute.